Case study

Heathrow Airport, United Kingdom Capacity Utilization

It may be the busiest international airport in the world, but it is unlikely to win any prizes for being the most loved. Long delays, overcrowding and shortage of capacity have meant that Heathrow Airport in London, United Kingdom is a cause of frustration to harassed airline passengers. Yet to the airlines themselves it is an attractive hub.

Its size and location give it powerful 'network effects'. This means that it can match incoming passengers with outgoing flights to thousands of different cities out there.

Actually, its attractiveness to airlines causes the main problem.

Heathrow runways are in demand that they are always operating to their maximum capacity. These runways operate at 99 percent of its capacity. This compares to about 70 percent at most other large airports around the world.

This means that any slightest variability such as bad weather or unscheduled landing or a plane had to turn back due to engine trouble causes serious delays. The result is that a third of all flights at Heathrow Airport are delayed by at least 15 minutes. This is poor when compared to other European airports such as Amsterdam Schipol airport or Amsterdam and Frankfurt in Germany. Which have 21 percent and 24 percent of flights delayed respectively.

Question.

Explain in detail how the Heathrow airport process could be improved using operations management principle of variability (16 marks)